[mythtv-users] MythTV 0.21 and seca3 encryption on DVB-S

[David Lister]

Simon Hobson wrote:
> Please remember that a lot of the developers are in the US, and the
> list servers are in the US. It might be perfectly legal for you, but
> even assisting you to legally break encryption is a criminal offense
> in the US. We'd all like to say "stuff the DMCA", it's a bad law that
> criminalises several explicitly legal things - it it IS the law (in
> the US, and now effectively in the UK under a different name) and
> people coming under US jurisdiction have to bear it in mind.
>
> THAT is why the list owner has requested that such topics be
> off-limits on this list. The risk to the whole project is too great -
> just one thread assisting you to legally view the programs you are
> after would be enough to have the list servers seized, and the people
> who run it arrested.
>
> You now it's crap, I know it's crap, I think most people know it's
> crap - but that's the law
SIDENOTE: I happen to have an unused housed server - I'd be more than
happy to setup a mailing list there, for exactly these kind of
discussions (Linux-related). Let me know if you think it would be of
some use.

First off, I'm not after anything - my setup is working, I just joined
the debate, because I wanted to bring some sanity into it. I hate the
smell of fear and I hate it especially on public & democratic forums. Of
course I know about all this, but except for a few zealots' fabrications
and truth bending, there's nothing to talk about. I could accept your
position on ethical merits, but not as a result of your scare tactics
and anyway, not from a person who regularly _circumvents_ protections
(e.g. playing DVD's on your Linux machines - CSS circumvention, didn't
you know?!!!). I can't remember any forum where talk about playing DVD's
on Linux is forbidden and we're talking a "serious crime" here, not like
100% legal use of SW CAM or HW CAM - inputs & outpus of which process
are identical and NO circumvention, NO copyright law breach and NO
illegal programming access takes place at all! Please, wake up and smell
the coffee.

Don't tell me you really believe that US government would seize this
pathetic, yet public and somehow democratic, list just because the
international community was discussing a perfectly legal TOPIC. Arrests?
Are you out of your goddamn mind? :) SW CAM use doesn't involve anything
different from a standard HW CAM. In both cases, you feed it your
subscription card, encrypted signal and you get the same decrypted MPEG
stream. I understand you're mostly ignorant in matters of law, but come
on! Even laymen should be able to grasp this. Where exactly is the
illegal? I never found any DMCA paragraph actually dealing with this
topic - even in the most general terms. Is it "illegal" (in your minds)
to use CI+CAM with your DVB card? No? Then why are we even discussing SW
CAMs? I'm beginning to think that none of you really knows what it is a
how it's being used. Perhaps it's because you are shitting your pants
just thinking about it. The problem is that Americans are pathetically
*afraid* of their government, and not just government - big corporations
as well, from which nobody can and will protect them. How saaad!

And when we're talking illegal, it's not just DVD's - your HD-PVR crap
and recording via analog (blasters & firewire remote) actually *is* a
copyright breach & so called "piracy". I believe it's time to shit your
pants once more, sir! :) You would be much better off using proper and
legal HW or SW CAMs integrated within HTPCs which, from the legal point
of view, are much less in the "gray" area than anything else home-brewed.


-- 
Dave